A flexible, scalable and completely biodegradable photothermal evaporator for highly efficient solar steam generation is fabricatedvia in situloading polydopamine particles in bacterial nanocellulose matrix during its growth.
To alleviate the scarcity of clean water, solar steam generation, which utilizes the green and abundant resources of Earth, has attracted considerable attention and been recognized as a sustainable technology to purify seawater and wastewater.
Herein, the recent advances in realizing highly efficient cellulose-based solar evaporators for alleviating the global water crisis are summarized. Fresh water scarcity is one of most threatening issues for sustainable development. Solar steam generation, which harnesses the abundant sunlight, has been recognized as a sustainable approach to harvest fresh water. In contrast to synthetic polymeric materials that can pose serious negative environmental impacts, cellulose-based materials, owing to their biocompatibility, renewability, and sustainability, are highly attractive for realizing solar steam generators. The molecular and macromolecular features of cellulose and the physicochemical properties of extracted cellulose nanoparticles (cellulose nanocrystals and cellulose nanofibrils) and natural cellulose materials (wood and bacterial nanocellulose) that make them attractive as supporting substrate materials in solar steam generators are briefly discussed. Recent progress in designing highly efficient cellulose-based solar evaporators, including utilizing the extracted cellulose nanoparticles via bottom-up assembly (cellulose nanofibrils), natural cellulose materials with intrinsic hierarchical structure (wood and bacterial nanocellulose), and commercial planar cellulose substrates (air-laid paper, cellulose paper and cotton fabric) is reviewed. The outstanding challenges that need to be addressed for these materials and devices to be utilized in the real-world and in overcoming global water crisis are also briefly highlighted.
This study demonstrates a simple, stable, and scalable polydopamine (PDA) coated PVDF membrane for highly efficient solar-driven membrane distillation.
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